Summer in Indiana!

Yes it’s summer in Indiana and 72 degrees! But look at my Teepee! I went to the Retreat today planning on one thing, but finding another.

Shadow felt like this was the more serious problem, and I agreed. You see, I have some low ground between the Teepee and the barn. Rain runs off barn roof and also off the side of Teepee and a flood develops. No one said it was going to be easy to create a garden retreat from scratch, and this is one of the challenges. In no time at all I was ankle deep in water and mud. No, those are not waterproof shoes. Good thing my feet are. (Sort of.)

So I’ve been sitting around for 6 weeks while trying to get that awful flu bug out of my lungs, and praise the Lord, it finally left. Today was good proof of it, but I was in no shape for this kind of exertion. I don’t know if you ever shoveled mud before, but every shovel load weighed a ton, and wanted to stick to the shovel! I could only fill the wheelbarrel about half, or it was too heavy to drag through all the slop! And I do mean drag, because there was no way of pushing it. The front wheel kept sinking in! An hour later I discovered the front wheel was actually flat! It looked fine without a load, but once loaded, the wheel was flat! (It did push easier after air was pumped in, but I still had to drag it.

So I fought with this mess for two hours and loved every minute. It felt so good to be getting in shape in nature again. Good outdoor work. But this is only a beginning. After two hours I was totally spent. I was hauling the mud I was digging, through all the water, so I could begin building up the low ground. I had to start at the farthest point, of course. It had to go clear up in the south end and against the barn. Dragging that wheelbarrel and slipping and sliding all the way, and with flat tire. I was a mess.

So I vastly improved the situation, but it’s only a start. Much more digging of trench to be done, possibly a dry well could be in the plans, and much more building up the ground between the barn and Teepee. But when I finally gave it up, it looked like this. >

All in a days work. So after weeks of bitter cold, winter, and a flu bug, we finally got to work on Tumble Pigeon Retreat for a day. Grandpa White Feather was a happy man. Tomorrow gets nasty again, including more rain. I’ll most likely be too sore to move anyways, so might as well dive back into studies! God is good! Now where’s that bottle of max strength aspirin? I know I put it somewhere.

“A Bird Called, Flapless”

Grandpa White Feather is the family Story Teller. With seven grandkids of his own, he understands the need for good stories with imagination and moral integrity to impart. I wrote this for my own family and would like to also share it with the world. It has lots of great pictures for holding attention, and if you hook your laptop to a big screen, your reading of the story can become a family event. Please check this out at flapless.wordpress.com